On Hipsters

[maxx]

On the other hand, why would fitting within the cultural default be admirable? Most men look like clones of other men. Consider, if you will, the tie. Incidently, I was watching a youtube video from the UK on guitars (Andertons site) and one the guys (Chappers) remarked that in the UK people don't wear baseball caps as so many of us do in the US. What is it with us men and hats or caps, anyway? I include myself in this.
I'm more annoyed at the tattoo obsession than so-called hipsters.

 

[deathmetal]

I don't know why anyone would care about if someone was a hipster or not.

I think it makes no sense to care if someONE is a hipster or not, but to care about hipsterISM because it means the death knell for whatever sub-culture or movement it latches on to.
But, as always, when fighting ideas, the point is not to find someone to pound the crap out of, but to find a way to uproot the idea...
Hipsterism is ironism + conformity. It has always existed; back around 1900 there were Bohemians, and those became 1920s flappers, and then in the 1940s zoot suit types and through the 1950s beatniks and 1960s hippies. In the 1970s, it was whoever was installing shag carpets and listening to disco, I guess. In the 1980s, things got more complex, and hipsterism took on many forms, thus you had "authentic Goths" and "poseur/hipster Goths" and so on.
Very interesting stuff. Does not succumb to binary reasoning (see Beyond Good and Evil) like most interesting things

 

[deathmetal]

I always post this article to describe hipsterISM -- which might be called "insincerity" in other types -- versus the confusion over fashion and hipsters:

Ever since the Allies bombed the Axis into submission, Western civilization has had a succession of counter-culture movements that have energetically challenged the status quo. Each successive decade of the post-war era has seen it smash social standards, riot and fight to revolutionize every aspect of music, art, government and civil society.
But after punk was plasticized and hip hop lost its impetus for social change, all of the formerly dominant streams of “counter-culture” have merged together. Now, one mutating, trans-Atlantic melting pot of styles, tastes and behavior has come to define the generally indefinable idea of the “Hipster.”
An artificial appropriation of different styles from different eras, the hipster represents the end of Western civilization – a culture lost in the superficiality of its past and unable to create any new meaning. Not only is it unsustainable, it is suicidal. While previous youth movements have challenged the dysfunction and decadence of their elders, today we have the “hipster” – a youth subculture that mirrors the doomed shallowness of mainstream society.
http://www.adbusters.org/article/hipster-the-dead-end-of-western-civilization/

 

[pappymac]

Geez! You guys have it all wrong. It's not a beard, tattoo or smoking a pipe that makes you a hipster.

It's the freakin' topknot or manbun thing on the back of your head and always wearing a flannel shirt and work boots even though you've never had a blister on your delicate, manicured soft pink hands.
Oh! I forgot! If you smoke Royal Yacht you may be a hipster.

 

[deathmetal]

If you smoke Royal Yacht you may be a hipster.

This photo of a young Joseph Stalin may lend some credence to that idea:

 

[johnbarleycorn]

Seriously what's up with this man bun craze. I really don't get it.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I, and I think all men that wear cologne, wear it to appeal to women. I could care less about what another man thought about the smell. But women, they wear perfume for each other, because I would never chose to smell those fragrances. I am not sure I would into enticingly chose one of those smells for my car, or anything. If women really wore perfume for the sake of men, it would smell like leather, or gasoline, or barbecue sauce... Or my favorite, freshly mowed grass, mmmmmm...
Oh, you were talking about something else. Sorry.

 

[voorhees]

I don't think of hipsters as a bad thing. There are worse things to be into, like being a radical muslim or a liberal puke...but we don't want to get political. :mrgreen:

 

[prairiedruid]

If women really wore perfume for the sake of men, it would smell like leather, or gasoline, or barbecue sauce... Or my favorite, freshly mowed grass, mmmmmm...

I've always liked women perfumed with Hoppe's No. 9.

 

[papipeguy]

I remember taking my daughter to the local mall when she was about 13. This kid walked by us with pants wide enough to be sails and wore a wool cap. It was August. My daughter looked at me for a reaction so I said, "The guy went through a lot of trouble just to look like a douche." She tried to act mortified but I could see the smile in here eyes.

Young people are very entertaining if you take the time to pay attention to them.

I don't know any "hipsters" as such but if I see someone that may pass for one, I just observe and chuckle to myself. Like most of us, they'll grow out of it.

 

[drumweezer]

It's not about being nice or not nice, billkay. I have a PhD in Rhetoric, Writing, and Professional Communication with a focus in queer/feminist rhetorics. Currently, I'm teaching first year and second year composition. I'm just making the point that deathmetal can use language in beautiful ways but that doesn't mean it is effective. In fact, the post really doesn't say much of anything except describe hipsters in stereotypical ways with a tone of condescension.

 

[iamn8]

Being codger means looking down your nose on what members of another generation sees as cool or different. You think the beatnik generation didn't all look exactly the same? The 60's generation all looked the same? They all are members of a subset so of course they'll look similar. Everyone is a cookie cut version of some other group. Who cares? Gather a group of old pipe smoking codgers in a room and I bet my life they all share very similar characteristics, cookie cutter.

 

[hawky454]

I still don't understand how pipe smoking is related to that of being a hipster but I get called a hipster all the time, just because I smoke a pipe, someone even said I am a hipster by default. I lived in Portland (hipster paradise) and I never saw a hipster smoking a pipe, although a few started because they thought it looked cool but gave it up 2 weeks later. I have only ever associated pipe smoking with nerds (the real, uncool kind)

Anyway, I'm pretty far outside the loop of pop culture, so it could be that I'm just not aware of this new trend. I've also learned that a hipster can be anything you want it to be.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

One thing is for certain, spellcheck changes my words enticingly, and if you put hipster in the title of a thread, the post count for the thread goes up significantly fast. Was that just one thing? Hmmm.

 

[tinsel]

always wearing a flannel shirt and work boots even though you've never had a blister on your delicate, manicured soft pink hands.

I wear a flannel shirt all the time, but I work with my hands (auto mechanic) and can assure you that they are quite rough and calloused ... does that earn me an exception??
PS I also smoke Royal Yacht

if you put hipster in the title of a thread, the post count for the thread goes up significantly fast

People love to hate.

 

[mcitinner1]

Being codger means looking down your nose on what members of another generation sees as cool or different.

My kids jokingly called me a codger because of my age, nothing else.

 

[iamn8]

My niece/nephew call me Smokey Smokerson

 

[aldecaker]

Whatever happened to that Russian guy with the pet bear?

 

[indianafrank]

Are you a hipster if you hang out on this forum?

 

[iamn8]

A hipster, no. Someone with too much free time? Pretty much.